1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operational control apparatus of an air conditioner and a method thereof by which rotary speed of an outdoor fan motor can be controlled according to rotary speed of an indoor fan motor to thereby perform cooling and/or heating operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in a conventional air conditioner, when a user establishes a desired temperature and turns on an operational switch, an indoor fan is driven according to a control of control means 5 and an indoor temperature changing at this time is detected by indoor temperature detecting means.
At this time, the indoor temperature data detected by the indoor temperature detecting means is received by the control means 5 and compared with the desired temperature data the user has established.
According to a result of the comparison therefrom, the control means 5 serves to determine an operational frequency of a compressor according to a difference between an indoor temperature and the established temperature, thereby driving the compressor.
By way of example, the compressor is driven when the indoor temperature is lower than the established temperature in a heating operation of the air conditioner, while the compressor is stopped of operation when the indoor temperature is above the established temperature, to thereby perform an indoor heating operation.
Meanwhile, the compressor is driven when the indoor temperature is above the established temperature in a cooling operation of the air conditioner, whereby the compressor is stopped of operation when the indoor temperature is below the established temperature, thereby performing an indoor cooling operation.
As noted in the above, the control means 5 serves to output a motor driving signal of high level to outdoor fan motor driving means 7 for driving an outdoor fan motor 9 through an output terminal according to the difference between the indoor temperature and the established temperature when the compressor is being driven.
Accordingly, a control signal of high level output from an output terminal 01 of the control means 5 is reversed at the outdoor fan motor driving means 7 to a signal of low level by an inverter INV1, to thereby be applied to an exciting coil RL of a relay RY.
Thereafter, a movable contact SW of the relay RY is turned on, to thereby cause a power supply voltage of commercial alternating current supplied from an alternating current power source input terminal 1 to be applied to an outdoor fan motor 9, so that the outdoor fan motor 9 can start rotating at a maximum speed.
However, in the conventional operating method thus described, the outdoor fan motor is driven only according to the difference between the indoor temperature and the established temperature regardless of heat exchange amount, in other words, regardless of change in indoor airflow discharge amount against the rotary speed of the indoor fan motor established by the user, so that the rotary speed of the outdoor fan motor cannot be variably controlled.
Therefore, there is a problem in that cooling efficiency can be decreased due to an overload state of the outdoor fan motor at a low level stage of the indoor airflow discharge amount during the heating operation, and temperature of the air discharged from an indoor unit can be lowered at a high level stage of the indoor airflow discharge amount to thereby prevent a pleasant indoor environment from being maintained.
Furthermore, there is another problem in that the cooling efficiency can be reduced by the front forming at an indoor heat exchanger due to overload of the outdoor fan motor at the low level stage of the indoor airflow discharge amount during the cooling operation, and the temperature of the air discharged from the indoor unit can be increased at the high level stage of the indoor airflow discharge to thereby prevent the pleasant indoor environment from being maintained.